NNew Delhi, Friday, 17 April 2009: In a letter to the Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shri PC Chidambram, All India Muslim
Majlis-e Mushawarat President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan said that “we cannot
accept that our youths are routinely kidnapped, tortured and forced to
accept crimes we believe they did not commit. Acquittals by the dozens are
proof of the injustice being done to defame and ruin the future of our
youths who are still studying or have just started their careers.”

Dr Khan brought to the notice of the prime minister and home minister the
case of Saifur Rahman, 22, who was kidnapped in the night of 13 April 2009
while taking his newly-wed sister from Azamgarh to her in-laws in Mumbai.
Saifur Rahman is the younger son of Dr Abdur Rahman, a retired professor
of zoology. On 12 April 2009 alongwith his sister Arshi, Saifur Rahman
boarded Godaan Express from Azamgarh on his way to Mumbai. The train
reached Jabalpur at around 1.30 am.

While the train was on Jabalpur station, 12 persons including a woman
(allegedly from the ATS) forcibly kidnapped Saifur Rahman and his sister
from their coach. When co-passengers objected, the raiding team told them
that they are arresting the duo because they are “thieves” and have
“weapons with them”. From Jabalpur the duo were taken to Bhopal. There the
sister was allowed to phone her husband who was able to reach Bhopal next
day (14 April) and was allowed to take his wife with him. Saifur Rahman,
on the other hand, was taken to Jaipur where all kinds of allegations were
levelled against him including one that he was going to Bhopal to
assassinate the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh while the fact is that he
was accompanying his sister to her in-laws in Mumbai.

Saifur Rahman was produced before a district court judge in Jaipur today
(17 April) where with tears in his eyes he denied all the allegations and
told the judge that he has been tortured to accept the allegations, that
he has been forced to sign on blank papers and has been told that his
sisters will be kidnapped and molested if he did not cooperate. Saifur
Rahman also showed the judge torture wounds on his body.

AIMMM President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan told the prime minister and home
minister in his letter, “it is a matter of grave concern for the Muslim
community that our youths are still being kidnapped, tortured and forced
to own up ‘crimes we believe they did not commit. This is not the way to
fight terrorism. Instead, this is a sure way to create terrorists out of
innocents. I reiterate here that the Muslim leadership must be taken into
confidence and shown real evidence if it exists. This kind of kidnapping
must stop forthwith as any wanted person may be easily arrested from his
house during day time.”

Dr Khan said in his letter, “While we support any effort to fight and
eradicate the scourge of terrorism, we cannot accept that our youths are
routinely kidnapped, tortured and forced to accept crimes we believe they
did not commit.” He added that “The government must be extra cautious
since communal and Sanghi elements have infiltrated into the police,
security and intelligence apparatus and are misusing their positions in
order to target, defame and demoralise the Muslim community.”

[All India Muslim
Majlis-e Mushawarat is an umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations]